The readings for this week are: Acts 16:16-34 and John 17:20-end.  The Acts reading continues our journey with the early church, exploring the impact of knowing the risen Christ on the way they lived, worshipped, and shared their lives with others.  This week it poses us the fascinating question, 'What is freedom?'.  As the story unfolds we find Peter and Silas arrested and imprisoned for an act of healing.  The free a slave girl from demonic possession, but her owners - themselves slaves to their love of money - can't get beyond the fact that they made from her demonic fortune-telling has been lost to them, and trapped in greed move to have her liberators put in chains.

But Peter and Silas, despite the loss of physical freedom, hold on to the hope they have found in Christ, and continue to be free in praise and worship - making use of their time in stocks to teach their fellow prisoners the latest worship songs...  And then miraculously, there is an earthquake, which releases their chains and opens the prison... free indeed! (Or maybe not...)

Meanwhile the gaoler wakes up and finds his prison sprung wide open - and we suddenly realise that this man with all the keys is, in fact, imprisoned by the system he works in and the expectations it puts upon him.  Trapped by 'his' failure to keep his prison secure, he takes out his sword and prepares to take the only honourable way out he can see...

BUT it turns out the prisoners have chosen to stay in their cells, even though the doors are wide open... exercising their freedom of choice to remain when they could leave...

Blown away by the physical salvation this offers him, the gaoler opens his home to Peter and Silas and learns from them what it is that has given them the courage to exercise their freedom in such a counter-cultural way - that others may benefit from it rather than themselves.  And he learns it's because they serve a Lord who is servant of all.   And by accepting their message he's saved not just physically, but eternally as well.

So the slave girl is freed (but still a slave); her owners are imprisoned by love of money; the free apostles and chained in prison, and then aren't - but choose to stay anyway; and the gaoler is the one trapped by the system, but set free by the prisoners...  It's a twisty one this week, to be sure - did you follow any of that?

So where does it leave us?  Well, I think it puts to us the question - where do we find our freedoms?  What are the freedoms we value?  To whom do we need to give thanks for them?  And maybe, what are the prisons we choose to stay in?

Pause for Prayer:  Take some time to pause and consider where you are in life.  What are the forces, traditions, or situations, that are guiding or controlling your choices?  As you consider them, notice any that are constraining your freedoms - and bring each of those to God.  With his help, spend some time discerning if it's right that those freedoms are restricted, or if there is any action you should be taking together to do something about the situation.  (It may help to talk this through with a trusted friend)  On the other hand, are there any areas where there is too much freedom, and a choice to find some discipline might be a better one?